Lawmakers and University community discuss book banning

By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez

Arts & Features Editor

Dylan Pichnarcik / THE GATEPOST

The Education Department and the Henry Whittemore Library hosted “Free Expression & Book Bans in MA: What Can We Do?” in the McCarthy Forum Oct. 7.

President Nancy Niemi said it’s wonderful to see a full house for an event focused on such a topic.

“It is almost assuredly true that as long as the written word has existed, there has been some opposition to it,” Niemi said.

A significant portion of the population lives in states that are affected by anti-literacy laws, she said.

“Almost 40% of the population now lives in states affected by state-level higher education censorship laws or policies,” Niemi said.

She said public educators have a commitment to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to protect the community’s right to read and teach students to think for themselves.

One way to protect this right is to highlight the practice of book banning, she added.

In 1982, the American Library Association launched “Banned Book Week” in response to the surge of book challenges in bookstores, libraries, and schools, she said.

“Post-COVID, once again there has been a large increase in book challenges and now state-sponsored censorship efforts in Florida and other states. Federal legislation has also been proposed,” Niemi said.

Ten states have enacted laws to protect access to diverse materials in public schools and libraries and prevent censorship, including California, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, she added.

She said Massachusetts legislators have also proposed bills to prevent censorship.

Niemi introduced Massachusetts State Representatives David Linsky, Jack Patrick Lewis, Adam J. Scanlon, and Kate Donaghue.

Linsky asked everyone to look up State House House Bill HB 3598 after the event. HB 3598 is one of two similar bills.

There are two because there are different types of libraries, and HB 3598 deals with school libraries, he said.

Libraries in elementary, middle, and high schools are a different legal entity than a public library, he added.

School libraries are controlled by school committees, while public libraries are governed by a library board of trustees, he said.

The bill is at “the final step we do procedurally in Massachusetts before a bill gets to the floor for a final vote,” Linsky said.

A few years ago, he would never have thought a bill like this would be necessary, he added. 

He said he attended a hearing about a month prior at the State House, and people from the American Library Association testified to some incidents.

Sometimes someone objects to a book and heads straight to the library to demand it be removed, he added. Librarians usually don’t know what to do in such situations.

Linsky said he and his colleagues want to make sure that professional librarians are the ones deciding what goes in the libraries. 

The bill would protect First Amendment rights for library patrons and employees, he said.

“I’m something of a First Amendment absolutist. I will defend your right at any time to say anything you want to say, as long as it’s not directly harmful, I’ll say,” Linsky said.

Scanlon said he’s a Framingham State University graduate from 2019.

He’s the first Democrat and gay person to be elected to his current position, he said. He’s from a conservative town.

He found out about North Attleborough taking steps to ban books from a Boston Globe article, he said.

The book in question was a book of poems titled “Woke: A Young Poet’s Call To Justice,” he added.

“The book was about poems that talked about equity, equality, body positivity, kindness, you know, really controversial stuff,” Scanlon said.

He said it was removed from the shelf because a parent said they didn’t think it was appropriate for kids.

The original official reason was the book’s title, which got enough pushback that they changed their reason to it not being age appropriate, he added.

“It’s OK if you don’t want to read a book, or you don’t want your kid to read a book, but don’t tell other people’s kids on what book to read,” Scanlon said

It was restored to the shelves in a couple of days, but he wouldn’t have known about it “if it weren’t for the press reaching out and investigating the story. Nobody would have known. It was all done in secret,” he said.

Scanlon and other representatives worked on the Freedom of Expression Act, which would have all of the school committees in Massachusetts adopt policies that prevent book bannings based on opinion, political, or ideological reasons, he said.

He said he learned two important lessons from reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” that he wouldn’t have learned if he didn’t have access to the book.

They’re that everyone is entitled to justice and that to understand someone else, you need to walk in their shoes, he said.

Lewis said it’s in some ways ironic for him to be discussing banned books when he admittedly doesn’t read as much as he should.

In middle and high school, he also didn’t read everything and instead often used CliffsNotes and SparkNotes, he added. He did eventually learn to love reading.

He said his first experience with book banning was actually in an old show, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

In the show, there was an episode where books from the library were being banned and even burned, he said. 

But then Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn starts talking about another book that she says should be banned, he added.

The book contains incest, fathers wanting to kill their sons, voices coming from bushes. It’s the Bible, he said.

In Hollywood and history, he can’t think of a single instance where books are banned or burned and the ones doing it are the good guys, he said.

But now, we’re in a time where people are claiming to be the heroes while “their ultimate goal is to prevent us from accessing resources that we need and that we are entitled to explore,” Lewis said.

If his kids went to the library and read something he would otherwise encourage them to, he’d be happy they were reading, he added.

When growing up, he didn’t have role models in the local library books, he said.

“My local library didn’t have a rainbow corner or a pride display,” Lewis said.

They’re not banning books like the Bible despite its concerning content, but they are banning books with trans kids, books by those who were enslaved, and those that are from a refugee perspective, he said.

Everyone in Massachusetts, regardless of age, citizenship, or being a registered voter or not, has a state representative, he said.

His job is to represent 45,000 people, and to help them all he needs to hear from them, he added.

“Because even in Massachusetts, the folks that support book bans are organized. They come to the State House, they lobby us,” Lewis said.

He said these groups, such as Focus on the Family, have active chapters in Massachusetts trying to keep families like his own from showing up in classrooms.

The New England Library Association launched a grant-funded hotline for librarians to get resources and support, he said.

The panelists started taking questions. The panelists include Niemi, Political Science Professor Thomas Severo, Education Professor Chu Ly, English Chair Lisa Eck, English major Charlie Karp, and English major Norah Russel.

Both Karp and Russel are also working in education.

Eck said one of the challenges is when people pretend “the whole room is straight and white because that diversity is not in the curriculum or is threatened.”

These policies are being voted on in school council meetings, and we need to stay alert for them, she added.

Niemi said to avoid self-censoring, even if you think a parent might complain.

What a teacher puts in a classroom should have a learning intent, which gives them a reason and a defense for using it, she said.

“I can’t believe that I didn’t get in more trouble in 1984, ’85, and ’86 when I was teaching middle school English and history,” Niemi said.

“Don’t let them take that power from you,” she added.

In universities and colleges, they can make sure students see that censorship is immoral and wrong, she said.

Karp said it’s important for students to question why these materials are being censored and why they’re being deemed inappropriate.

Russel said giving students access to books that allow them to live through other people is a good way for them to figure out who they are.

Ly said college students can run for local offices, such as school committees, and that she’s happy to talk it through as a director of civic engagement.

Severo said one of the reasons political science is difficult is because they don’t always have clear rules.

Schools do have the right to ban content that is pervasively vulgar or not suitable for an age group, and it’s difficult to define that clearly, he said.